Preparing lower level students for IELTS. Fiona Aish and Jo Tomlinson

Transcription

1 Preparing lower level students for IELTS Fiona Aish and Jo Tomlinson

2 Overview Discussion: What challenges do you face? General difficulties for lower levels and strategies to overcome these Tools for teaching each paper at lower levels and activities for the classroom

3 About us Course design, delivery, test development and teacher training for EAP and exam preparation. A diagnostic test to help students prepare for taking IELTS

4 Over to you Do you teach IELTS to lower levels? What levels? What challenges does this bring? How do you overcome them?

5 Concepts at lower levels Language Systems before skills Test knowledge Meaningful item practice Motivation and level awareness Diagnostic testing and goal setting Test, test, test! Connect language to improvement

6 Teaching lower levels IELTS listening and reading

7 Tools for listening Explore item construction - in order to help your students understand what they will hear. Get students to create language for listening - motivational tool and good language practice for a receptive skill Grade listening where possible -work to their level by task type/section/sourcing own material Include the basics! -give spelling tests - practise places, times, dates. Use noticing tools - Include self assessment and guided discovery. - Use the audio script

8 Source: Official IELTS Practice Materials (Updated 2009)

9 Features identified From looking at the audioscript and analysing the questions and answers, we can see: - the distractors are sometimes mentioned - the distractors are mentioned using the direct words from the question paper - the answers are mentioned using a synonym or synonymous phrase This is just one pattern we can identify. It is not the rule.

10 How can we use this? - Explore correct and incorrect answers with the students. - Make the student the examiner. Use a reinforcement activity where the students explore the questions or audio script. - With lower levels, stage this with focused grammar/vocabulary.

11 The hotel is most popular with A. the elderly B. families C. business people 1. Brainstorm the vocabulary over 65s staying for work parents and children 2. Paraphrase the stem (include any grammar/vocabulary work) Other ways of saying most popular (passive/active focus) The hotel is especially liked by /...especially like(s) this hotel. The hotel is a particular favourite of / particularly favour(s) the hotel. Other ways of saying hotel Our establishment / The Bridge Hotel

12 The hotel is most popular with A. the elderly B. families C. business people 3. Introduce possible ideas/structures for distraction e.g. Both families and business people enjoy everything the hotel has to offer, but the Bridge is particularly liked by the over 65s. Task In groups, students write the audioscript for this question. Choose any answer to be the correct word. Include: -1 or 2 of the other (incorrect) answers -The other wrong answers in the same form as they are in the question -The answer in a synonymous form

13 Tools for reading Focus on intensive reading - reduce skimming/scanning activities and give a linguistic focus - look at paragraph level texts Scaffold reading - pre-teaching needs to be done - where possible, restrict the language focus and consider materials carefully Understanding question types - prediction techniques for certain questions - how questions are reformulated and organised in the text Use noticing tools - include self assessment and guided discovery. - Always explore the answers

14 Aish F and Tomlinson J (2012) Grammar for IELTS, Collins, p.68

15 One of the causes of obesity is the rising cost of food. Many supermarkets today claim that (1) they provide low cost food, but fruit and vegetables have increased in price. (2) This means that it is more difficult for low income families to feed their children healthy food. As a result, we have seen more obesity and other health problems. (3) These issues have negative effects on healthcare and education. What do the underlined words refer to? Write the nouns below: 1. provide low cost food, but fruit and vegetables are becoming more expensive. 2. makes it more difficult for low income families to feed their children healthy food. 3. have negative effects on healthcare and education.

16 One of the causes of obesity is the rising cost of food. Many supermarkets today claim that (1) they provide low cost food, but fruit and vegetables have increased in price. (2) This means that it is more difficult for low income families to feed their children healthy food. As a result, we have seen more obesity and other health problems. (3) These issues have negative effects on healthcare and education. What do the underlined words refer to? Write the nouns below: 1. Supermarkets provide low cost food, but fruit and vegetables are becoming more expensive. 2. The high cost of fruit and vegetables makes it more difficult for low income families to feed their children healthy food. 3. Obesity and health problems have negative effects on healthcare and education.

17 One of the causes of obesity is the rising cost of food. Many supermarkets today claim that (1) they provide low cost food, but fruit and vegetables have increased in price. (2) This means that it is more difficult for low income families to feed their children healthy food. As a result, we have seen more obesity and other health problems. (3) These issues have negative effects on healthcare and education. IELTS style questions. Complete the summary in NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS. It is difficult for poorer families to eat healthy food because have not reduced the price of. This leads to obesity and other problems which more widely affect.

18 Teaching lower levels IELTS writing and speaking

19 Tools for writing Task 1: - Give meaningful practice - Help students with meaning from context - Focus on essential grammar e.g. tense, s/v/o, prepositions -Get students to rewrite and recycle activities with small changes e.g. a tense change -Give detailed feedback to individuals and groups Task 2: - Explore how to answer the question NOT write about the topic - Focus on essay grammar (e.g. modals, basic noun phrases) - Teach subject specific lexis and collocations - Guided paragraph/idea development (even simplistic ones) - Give students checklists for self-editing and peer review

20 Decoding writing task 1 Describe the movements of each of the coloured lines.

21 What else can you say about the lines now?

22 The line graph below shows the percentage of Doblists who visited four different Yukefont Hotions. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant. 50 Percentage of Doblists who visited Yukefont Hotions Percentage (%) Bivarium Distile Reede Fetisal

23 The line graph below shows the percentage of Doblists who visited four different Yukefont Hotions. What pronoun can you use with this? Why? Do people or things visit? What do they visit? Percentage of Doblists who visited Yukefont Hotions Are these Doblists or Yukefont Hotions? How do we know? Percentage (%) Bivarium Distile Reede Fetisal Does this refer to Doblists or Yukefont Hotions? What tense is needed?

24 IELTS Task 1 Example Aish, F. & Tomlinson, J. (2012) Get Ready for IELTS Writing, Collins p. 39

25 Tools for speaking Familiarise students with the tasks - ensure students understand the focus of each part - explain how the marking works Provide building blocks - practise topic-based vocabulary & sentence substitutions (E.g. My main reason for... is.../ In my there is/ are ) - focus on building up answers using basic linking words (E.g. and, but, so, because) Recycle language and tasks - reinforce activities by repetition with small changes (E.g. tense, topic, question words) Use noticing tools - use model answers and get students to record themselves - encourage students to assess their own spoken output

26 Snelling, R. (2012) Get Ready for IELTS Speaking, Collins p. 29

27 Snelling, R. (2012) Get Ready for IELTS Speaking, Collins p. 21

28 In summary Systems before skills Meaningful item practice Diagnostic testing and goal setting Connect language to improvement

29 Thank you for listening Find out your students strengths and weaknesses at IELTS: Find out more about Target English and our services: